darrenfreeman
commented
9 years ago In the future we could have multiple bookmark files, one for user-entered bookmarks, and others that come as supplied libraries. You would be able to turn each file on or off, in the same way that you turn tags on and off. If you turn a file off, it would not display on the FFT.
So e.g. you could have a file for country-wide allocations, such as numbered TV channels, and more files for allocations specific to your city, e.g. the names of local radio stations. You would turn on the ones relevant to your location as you move around. None of these would be updated by the editor, any changes would be saved to your user bookmarks file. Possibly there would be a field in the user bookmarks file saying "this entry overrides the entry in filename.csv". If you went to delete that bookmark in the editor, instead of saying "delete" it would say "revert".
At present, a bookmark saves a "bandwidth". This will restore into the filter bandwidth if the bookmark is selected. It has no relation to the "official" licensed bandwidth for that channel. If it's really noisy, you might have it set to a small part of that channel, and if it's really strong, you might have it wider to reduce phase shifts near the edges.
I would like to be able to input a variety of channels and their official licensed bandwidths into the bookmarks file (via a text editor), such that the values entered are pulled from regulatory information local to my area. E.g. all the FM radio stations, all the CB channels. The bandwidths will be the official values.
But then I might want to use filters that differ in bandwidth from the published ones. So I would like a "visual" bandwidth that is only used for display purposes, and a separate filter bandwidth that is what we already have. I don't mind if at first the UI has no way to input the visual bandwidth, I am doing this by hand from tables of data anyway. I can test out the display code with most users unaware that the feature exists.
What I want is for the bookmarks that are drawn on the FFT, to also have a shaded bandwidth (in colour maybe! One that is set per channel would be great!). This is always displayed whenever the bookmark is visible. Let's say it's a 15 MHz wide cell phone channel. My input device only sees 2.5 MHz at a time, so I'd encounter the edge of the band long before the bookmark appears. In this case I'd like for the bookmark tag to be displayed on the corresponding edge of the FFT. As you tune through the spectrum, it would sit there on the edge, until the centre frequency comes into view, and then it would move with that frequency, eventually getting stuck on the opposite side of the spectrum if you continue to tune off the channel.
I think this would add a lot to the usability as a curiosity-driven scanner. And then maybe people can start to create libraries that correspond to various countries, so that you can start out with a map of your area and go exploring.